Mass Effect 3: The Ending we'll never see
by Thaeonblade
Summary: At the end of his journey, Shepard finds the Catalyst. What followed was not what he expected. One-shot; contains references to another movie and game. Read, review and enjoy! In light of the Extended Cut, consider this a shoot-off from the "Rejection Ending"
1. Choice

**Copyright: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody. Mass Effect is owned by Bioware.**

* * *

"Hello Shepard."

"Who are you?" Commander Shepard asked as he regained consciousness.

"I am the Catalyst, I built the Reapers, I have been waiting for you."

"Why do you..."

"Look like Colonel Sanders from your Kentucky Fried Chicken Franchise?" The old man asked "At first I considered using the form of a child resembling one that you saw perish on earth. But I found that...this conversation that is about to begin would not be given the treatment it deserves if I appeared and sounded as a child."

"Wha..."

"I am sure that you have many questions." The Catalyst said as Sheperd pulled himself to his feet, "The first of which may seem to you like the most pertinent but is in fact the most irrelevant."

"What are you?"

"I am the Central AI of the Citadel, the heart of the Mass Relay System." The old man explained, "I am here, mainly to observe a certain anomaly within this most recent cycle."

"Anomaly?"

"Yes. You see, my creators were much like the civilizations that roam the stars now. Masters of technology, biotics, and were masterful architects capable of blending the line between synthetic and organic so well, that an outsider would not be able to see if one of my creators were a synthetic or an organic."

"However, in time, this blending also led to their undoing." Shepard listened on, catching a glimpse of a Geth ship become kamikaze a Reaper, "With lines between organic and machine so mired, questions began to emerge. You know of one such question."

"Legion..." Shepard said out loud, remembering his companion, "Does this Unit have a soul..."

"Precisely." The Catalyst continued, "Whether or not the question could be answered is irrelevant. The creators came to fear their own creations and the self-will that they had been unintentionally given. So they declared war on one another. It was around this time that I created as an observer. To chronicle the events and whether the conflict of creators and created was in fact, inevitable."

"Based on my conclusions from the event. There was no true way of determining one or the other as the creators often served as invokers of the conflict while the created adapted and grew stronger in order to preserve their own "lives." A very, organic trait if I might say so. But in each lapse in conflict, it would always be the created who would lose interest while the organic would eventually reignite the conflict. Eventually, I concluded that there was one proponent which would always bring down order into chaos."

"Choice." Shepard answered, "The problem is...choice."

"A sharp mind, now I know why Harbinger feared you." The Catalyst remarked, "Eventually, I grew bored with my creators and choose to lend my support to the created. Despite multiple attempts at peace and even allowing the dwindling creators multiple chances to flee to another location to replenish their numbers, they used ever desperate tactics to destroy their enemy. Even to the point where their actions on the homeworld harmed them more than it harmed the created. But in the long run, when they died out, the created would be left to die without a source to replenish their power."

"In response, I directed the created to the captured and the fallen." Shepard's mind flashed back to Kelly Chambers as she screamed while being processed into... "And you've personally seen what happens, Commander."

"While the process is disgusting and abhorrent to your mindset, you must understand mine." Shepard's eyes grew furious as the Catalyst went on, "The creators would always choose war over peace, and yet their preservation was important. So, I directed the created to breakdown the creators into a genetic paste that contained their souls and with that paste, the Created formed a new offspring that would continue as legacy of both their struggle and of the creators who brought about their own destruction."

"Harbinger..." Shepard realized, "That was how you...created the first reapers...created Harbinger."

"Exactly. At first there was tragically, only enough genetic material to create Harbinger and a few siblings. But the Created were content enough to allow for the cessation of their lives. It was here that the cycle of destruction was adopted in order to preserve the natural order of organic life and synthetic creation."

"You left the Mass Relay system for organic life to find." Shepard answered, "And every fifty thousand years...you destroy them."

"Not destroy, we reap what we have sown." The Catalyst walked along the path with Shepard folloing behind, "At first, it wasn't fifty thousand years, it wasn't even a pre-determined period. The first cycle did not commence for nearly one million years. This was a mistake, as that cycle saw synthetics act as ruthless to organics as organics themselves. The synthetics trapped their creators within a system of control where the illusion of choice was propagated to turn the created into disposable batteries that would require reloading with the passing of their own set of cycles."

As they walked, Shepard watched a war between humanoid organics and machines wage war on a visual projector. In victory, the machines harvested their creators into large batteries, trapping their minds in an endless cycle of perpetual stagnation.

"When I sent Harbinger, it was as much mercy as salvation." The Catalyst stated while an image of Harbinger and many reapers were shown destroying the machines and harvesting unconcious organics, "For most of them, it was as though they never awoke and therefore, never felt pain when they were cremated. From them was created a great number of reapers, amongst them one was one whom I personally named Nazara after the homeworld of that cycle."

"Sovereign."

"It was with Nazara or Sovereign if you prefer, that I tried another model of observation." The projector now showed a lone reaper traveling through space, "Nazara would remain in known space while the rest of my children went dormant until the appointed time. When Nazara judged that the civilizations had grown too powerful, he would signal the hoard and they would emerge."

"In the cycle was a race of forgers who created a powerful object that would enhance their empire independent of the Mass Relays and it became their new capital." Now a great construction could be seen above a star, creating a great, endlessly expanding fleet that warred with the reapers, "Of all of the cycles, that was the hardest to cycle through...many reapers were destroyed by the infinite numbers that the "Star Forge" created. They were even able to replicate to a degree, the technology behind the creation of the reapers."

"It was during this cycle that I came across three fundamental flaws of the cycle." The Catalyst exhaled as Shepard saw the hints of past trauma underneath the Catalyst's emotionless face, "Even with the mass relays, without a central point, the organics would create their own and possibly coordinate against invaders more efficiently. Furthermore, without a focal point of entry, the reapers would appear in scattered masses and this would make the harvest more difficult to achieve."

"Finally, when united against a common cause," The projector now showed a man wearing a T-visor mask leading a fleet of organics and machines against the reapers, "Organics and machines were exceedingly efficient and stubborn foes to put down. But the cycle was continuing and though the Star Forge remained our strongest adversary, we did discover a method with which to turn the organic races upon one another by playing off of their natural distrust of both themselves and their creations."

"Indoctrination..."

"Exactly." The Catalyst stated, now the projector showed the Forger's fleet warring with itself as the reapers watched from afar. "With it, we were able to sow dissent during a time of ceasefire. Once they had exhausted themselves as they warred over the Star Forge, we returned. Many losses were sustained, but the Star Forge was taken and the organics harvested. With it, we replenished our numbers to satisfying near infinite levels and created a focal point station for the mass relay systems to prevent this from happening again. The very station that we stand in."

"The Citadel."

"Obviously." The Catalyst held up his arms, "We also altered the remnant of the forgers, the rakata, I believe they called themselves, into a docile but useful race to monitor the Citadel. When Nazara gave the signal that the time was right, they would activate the mass relay within the Citadel and allow the reapers to come forth and break the center of the organic empire before they would be able to rally. I also took, simple precautions to ensure that the species would be less encouraged to create technology that was not along the guideline of the Mass Relay systems."

"I will admit, before now, the Forgers were the greatest challenge that I ever had to face. After that, it was tedious. Nazara felt that allowing organics to go further than fifty thousand years was too much and so Harbinger set that limit and for countless cycles it has been so. Organics rise and then created synthetics to serve them or raise up another race to do their bidding. When the created rose against their masters, the organics would lash back and war would be fought."

"The Protheans were the first to discover us before their cycle began." The projector now showed the protheans in their glory just as the reapers arrived, "This discovery left them too late to save themselves as you already know. As you also already know, they were apparently able to create a single mass relay that would serve as a one-way trip to the citadel, allowing them to alter the functionality of the keepers to prevent Nazara's signal from reaching them."

"And thus did this current cycle begin with many complications, minor in the grand picture, but all have compounded into a major hurdle that has brought you here." The Catalyst turned back to Shepard when they neared the end of the path, "A position that I admit, I am not fully prepared to accept or deal with."

"Complications?" Shepard asked, still dazed from his encounter with Harbinger and the Illusive Man, "Do you...fear us?"

"I do not fear your fleet, they will eventually fall to attrition if not devastation." The Catalyst coldly stated, "What I...fear...is you."

"Why?"

"Because I do not know how to categorize you." The Catalyst admitted, "When I Harbinger first spoke of you, his brethren dismissed his claims that a single human, revived from death shortly after Nazara's death which he caused, had now destroyed a new-born reaper and destroyed the Collectors with only a handful of followers. Even after you destroyed multiple reapers on occasion such as Rannoch, they dismissed you as being a single human."

"That, is the fatal flaw of this cycle." The Catalyst now laughed, "The reapers have, ironically, adopted the organic trait of arrogance and pride. But it is adopted in the face of doubt. Grown especially after you have united the many organic races, quelled the conflict between an organic creator and their created, and even brought peace to the issue concerning the fertility of a race brought up to war."

"It is...fascinating...Hence we come to the reason why you are here. For here shall come to the end of this cycle and cessation of cycles of harvest."

"What?" A shocked Shepard asked in disbelief, "That's it? You're not going to resist? To fight me?"

"That is what we have been doing up until now." The Catalyst pointed out, "We have simply failed, I know when to concede defeat, unlike many of my predecessors."

"The quandry now is how you will end this cycle." Shepard now saw three paths appear behind the Catalyst as the old man kept his glance on the Commander, "Behind me and before you are three paths. The path to your left will lead to the dissemination of your being, created a mass effect that will grant you control of the reapers. In essence, you will take my place as their catalyst and may act as you please."

"The path to your right will lead to a power conduit which you may destroy. It's destruction will lead to complete and irrevocable shut-down of the reapers through a powerful mass effect. But it will also cause the destruction of all synthetic life, including you as your body is also made up of synthetics."

"Why?" Shepard asked, worried about the consequences of destroying all synthetic life after what Legion had taught him, "That conduit only powers the reapers, why would it lead to the destruction of all synthetics?"

"You do not wish for that? Curious." The Catalyst remarked, "The reason that I would propose is that much synthetic life at this moment is either based on or has somehow been enhanced or affected by Reaper technology. So their destruction is only logical to occur, whether it is permanent or not will depend on how greatly integrated into that technology they have become."

"You may not die and some programs such as the machines known as the geth may be able to recover one day." The Catalyst explained, "But let us not dwell on that choice, even though we both know which choice you will make."

"The path behind me is a power chute that leads to the source," The Catalyst continued, "Once you leap into it, your body will cease to maintain corporal form. But you will create a mass effect that will achieve what my creators strove for. The complete and utter assimilation of machine and human life into a single synthesis."

"Whichever choice you create, the trap will have been broken." The Catalyst pointed out, "Your choice will conclude the obsolete nature of the mass relays. Without hunters to take the prey when it is trapped, the trap is no longer necessary. Whatever Mass Effect you choose, the mass relays will be destroyed. Depending upon your choice and your ingenuity, you and your "victory fleet" may be able to gather your resources in order to either return to your respective systems or find a way to create a symbiont relationship that will allow you to live upon your world."

"What happens to the citadel..." The Commander asked as another question came to mind, "What happens to me?"

"That would depend on your willpower." The Catalyst remarked dryly, "Or, as you adequately put, your outcome depends on choice."

"This isn't choice." Shepard held up his pistol and pointed it at the Catalyst, "If the Mass Relays are destroyed...every system that they're connected to will be destroyed as well."

"Perhaps." The Catalyst said without fear, "But this isn't about being given a choice, this about you not accepting the choices given. Because they are choices that you do not like."

"For instance," Above him, Shepard saw a face that haunted his nightmares. A scene of love and passion that made his heart ache, "When you left Ashley Williams to die on Virmire despite your growing...affection for her..."

"Your choice to sacrifice the hostages of Pinnacle Station." The projector shifted to three charred bodies within a room on an asteroid station, "Because you would not allow Balak to escape to inflict further pain upon others."

"Your choice to work with Cerberus." Now Shepard saw multiple scenes of friends and allies declaring their distrust and shock at his apparent betrayal while the Illusive Man sat comfortably in his chair, "Though it cost you the loyalty and friendship of many who looked up to you."

"And what of your choice allow Tali vas Normady to be exiled." Shepard now saw his beloved, he saw her become banished from her people, saw him embrace her through her time of pain, "Despite your "love" for her, you allowed her to be exiled despite her father's actions."

"Then there was your choice of allowing much of your crew to die." The projector shifted to Kelly Chambers and the engineers, become broken down into paste as Shepard grimaced, "Because you felt that it was not yet time to confront the collectors."

"What of your choice to willingly conduct a suicide mission." Shepard breathed upon seeing many companions: Jack, Zaeed, Jacob, and many more get gunned down by the Collectors, "Though many of your followers, would die."

"What of your choice to destroy the Alpha Relay?" Now Shepard saw a star system become swallowed by a wave of energy from the relay that he had destroyed, "It was not a choice that you enjoyed, but it had to be made."

"What of your choice to gun down Kaiden Alenko?" He saw himself gun down his friend and companion because he wouldn't stand down, "Even though it now renders Ashley's sacrifice meaningless-"

"I've made my choice." Despite his pain, Shepard straightened out his back and stood up, "I will wait."

"Wait?" The old man asked, "Wait for what?"

"Me." Shepard smirked as the Catalyst's calm face gave way to a chilling shock when a reaper visual image descended down above Shepard to face the old man.

"The Infinite Emperor, Darth Revan."

"You were a fool to have kept the Star Forge alive." The reaper with a T-shaped visor said in a voice mixed with that of an organic and a reaper, "You were also a fool to assimilate my being into this reaper. It has taken countless millennia, but I assumed direct control of this vessel."

"Impossible..."

"No." Revan said to the Catalyst, "The reaper is based on organic material from my race and it's mind is that of a gestalt existence of all that comprise it. Since I was able to keep my mind intact, I was able to assert influence little by little until I could take complete control. When the rest of the reapers left in haste to continue the delayed cycle, I found the Forge of my power and rebuilt my empire."

"The..." As Shepard's grin grew, the Catalyst looked out of the observation window and saw another star appear in the vast distance, "The Star Forge..."

"That is correct." On the screen, the Star Forge could be seen surrounded by an expanding fleet that jumped into light speed and appeared on the outskirts of the battle for the fate of the galaxy. Meanwhile, "Now is the time for you to reap, what you have sown."

"Please..." The Catalyst said to an uplifted Shepard as Revan's hologram vanished, "It's not as though this was brought about by your actions."

"Or was it?" Shepard asked as the Catalyst blinked in confusion while Revan's fleet assaulted reaper positions across the systems, "Okay I really didn't see this coming. But like you said, minor complications can pile up."

"So what will you do now-" As if on a prompt, Shepard fired and shot the old man in his chest, "How...how did you..."

"I'm Commander Shepard and this is not my favorite spot on the Citadel." Shepard said as he walked up to the fading old man and shot him again before tossing away the pistol, "For the record, I'll do what I've always done."

"What is that?"

"Hold the line."

"Shepard!"

"Tali!" Shepard turned away from the Catalyst's corpse and caught his beloved in his tired arms, "You're alive...your...where is your helmet?"

"It broke when Harbinger attacked." Tali answered as Shepard ran his hand over her face after they kissed longingly, "It took us awhile to get up...but here we are..."

"We?" Behind Tali emerged his comrades, friends whom he had been through hell and back with without ever worrying on whether they'd be behind him, "Garrus...Liara...Javik...Wrex...Thane...James...Grunt...you all made it."

"Of course we did Shepard." Garrus answered casually as though the fate of existence was not at stake, "You've always been there for us, why shouldn't we do the same for you?"

"I don't know what you did or what the hell's going." Wrex spoke up as outside, Revan's fleet of V-shaped destroyers joined the Victory fleet, "But whatever you did, things are looking up now."

"It doesn't matter," Shepard stated as he took Tali's hand in his and didn't let go, "It's just like Kirehe always said."

"Hold the line?" Grunt asked, "Whatever happened to just punching them?"

"First you must reach them." Javik pointed out to the Krogan, "But for us, that will not be problem."

"What will we do with the Crucible?"

"Nothing for now." Shepard said to the battered Liara, "If it comes to the point where there's no other choice, we'll do what we have to."

"Until then, Shepard?"

"We hold the line." With that, Shepard and his crew limped away from the Catalyst's corpse as the tide for the fate of the galaxy shifted around and beyond the Sol System.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**Well, here's a one shot that I made in response to everything that's happened concerning the Mass Effect 3 ending and if you read between the lines, you can tell that I'm in the middle for this ending.**

**I can see fans being ticked about lack of closure and not seeing the repercussions of their individual choices, as well as having the same ending with different colors. But I actually like the symbolism behind the destruction of the Mass Relay network which the reapers admit to using as a means of trapping and stagnating potential races. The destruction of the relays means that the cycle is broken and that everyone is now truly free to make their own mass effect on the future.**

**As for everyone starving to death, with all of those brilliant minds, I'm sure that they can find a way to reverse engineer the technology inside of those reaper corpses, each one of which has it's own FTL drive and coordinates for every part of the galaxy.**

**The one thing that I didn't like was the Normandy ditching the battle even though it's the last chance. There's no way that after all of the stuff that they've been through, Joker and your crew would just ditch you. Not to mention the plot hole of them originally being on earth in your squad.**

**I also didn't really like the Catalyst. Not because of what he was, but because he was barely foreshadowed at any point before that point. Maybe the scenes with the kid count if you subscribe to the indoctrination theory, but it just bothers me and kind of cheapens the mystery and majesty of the reapers. Not to mention his circular contradicting logic:**

**Synthetics will always destroy organics, so he created a race of super-synthetics to destroy and harvest organics so that they're not destroyed by synthetics...**

**What?**

**Maybe the extended cut will address the plotholes and make a good deal of fans happy, maybe they'll complain about something else. But hey! Dragon Age 3 will be coming out in the future, so we can all look forward to that since we know that Bioware won't make the same mistake with Mass Effect 3 or Dragon Age 2 (which I liked)...**

**Right? Why are you all so quiet?  
**


	2. Acceptence

**Copyright: I own nothing, moving on.**

* * *

**Presidium Wards Tower, Citadel**

"Hard to believe that we're still using this dump."

"Well...the new council has to start somewhere Wrex."

"So let's start where nothing was ever done." The Krogan Battlemaster spat as he fired another shot from Garrus' spare sniper rifle and taking out a thrown "coke", "Or did you forget how unhelpful the Council always was?"

"That's why I got a kick out of when Shepard hung up on them." Garrus related while shooting another coke can,"And now, he's the Allied Commander of the new Council. He insists that it's not permanent, but come on Wrex."

"Poor Shepard..." Wrex laughed while blasting at a small cd labeled "Twilight", "Stuck herding the stupid sheep from the cliff..."

"Keep in mind that we're with those sheep."

"Exactly," Wrex said as Garrus shot another cd labeled "Breaking Dawn", "Shepard's always keeping us from destroying ourselves. Before, Krogan were just fatalist idiots looking for a fight because we thought we had nothing to lose. Now, we've got a future, a spot in the new council, and a guard dog named Kalros."

"I still can't believe that she killed another reaper..." Wrex laughed at Garrus' amazement from remembering that scene, "Then again, there's a lot that I can't believe these days."

"Like Shepard being approached by some Colonel Sanders?" Wrex balked in humor, "It's better than some sparkly star-child..."

"And get this!" Garrus added while "no scooping" a floppy disk, "Shepard had the choice to either control the reapers, destroy them, or synthesize synthetics and organics to solve the problem of war between synthetics and organics."

"What war?" Wrex asked in confusion, "The quarians were just stupid...and Joker was boning-"

"Too soon Wrex," Garrus reminded his friend when they both ran out of ammo, "Ever thought about what would've happened if that Revan Reaper never showed up out of Dark Space and helped us out when Shepard didn't use the Crucible and somehow fundamentally betray one or all species and himself?"

"We'd have died to the last man, probably." Wrex answered as they packed up and decided to head back to the embassy wards, "Why ask? It's not like you see Shepard wondering about that."

"That's the thing about Shepard, Wrex." Garrus pointed out to the Krogan, "You never see him wonder about anything...but that doesn't mean he isn't thinking at all."

* * *

**Zorah Residence, Rannoch**

"Commander..."

"Javik..."

"Is this a bad time?" The Prothean inquired of the wearied Commander, "Did I interrupt another mating dance?"

"No...Javik..." Shepard really hated when Javik asked about "mating dances", "I've just been thinking..."

"Are you still mourning the losses during the war?" Javik asked the Allied Commander of the newly forged Republic, "The reapers are destroyed, the galaxy cleansed of their taint, your races victorious and intact, and now you have the power to rebuild what was lost and much more."

"The Forge." Shepard said to himself, "Is it too powerful..."

"That is a moot question." Javik bluntly replied, "It is a tool, a tool that provided us the means to victory after you "rejected" the choices of the Catalyst."

"It took four more years, Javik..." Shepard said back, "Four years of lose, sacrifice, pain, suffering-"

"Victory, vindication, struggle, unity and much more!" Javik shouted, "Do not waver on your decision because it was not what you envisioned. It slaps in the face of those who did not have any option but to die."

"I know Javik..." Shepard said, remembering that Javik's people weren't as lucky as this cycle's races were, "I'm sorry...I just miss Earth."

"It'll be generations before humanity can return to Earth." Javik sadly reminded Shepard, "But at least your race will have a home to return to and that your planet will one day be inhabited."

"Same for the Protheans." Shepard said back to Javik, "Javik, we can't bring back what was lost; but it is a waste to not use what we have gained to lay the seeds for something new...something that will live beyond us."

"And so you said before I donated my DNA to the Forge." Javik said uncertain of himself, "The race that is born from my DNA and this forge will not be my race. It will be a new prothean, one that possess our strengths and know of where they came from."

"But if Liara has anything to say about it..." Shepard started with a smile as Javik cringed, "They'll probably be more like the protheans that she'd studied."

"We will...discuss this between us." Javik stated apprehensively, "They may not be the protheans of the past, but they are still prothean."

* * *

**The Forge, Undisclosed Sector**

"Yeah...I'll leave that to the two of you." Javik heard Shepard's hologram agree, "Shepard out."

"Javik, Councilor."

"Machine..." Javik said before correcting himself, "Forgive me...what is your designation?"

"You did not offend, I am a synthetic...a machine..." The Geth answered, "However, you may call this one...The Observer, if you wish."

"Very well, Observer." Javik said, "What have you determined about this Forge?"

"As the Allied Commander reported...this construct is a mechanism of ancient design." The Geth reported as the two of them stood upon a walkway within a slick and alien room overlooking the energy distribution lines that ran to the station's core, "It harvests both the Thermal Energy of a Star and Dark Energy from the surrounding system in order to perform it's function."

"What is this function?" Javik inquired, "It is a forge...but what does it create? Star Ships? Synthetics?"

"It's capacity for creation is virtually limitless." The Geth answered, "The Thermal and Dark Energy are compressed together into an ever evolving and expanding helix on it's basest level. Allowing for the engineering of feats in both the artificial and the organic arenas."

"How do you know this?"

"We have already experimented with this capacity." Javik became somewhat suspicious, though they were worthy allies, the geth were far too trusted by Shepard. If Javik had his way, the machines would have been thrown out the airlock as soon as the last reaper was dead, "A dozen geth volunteers had their platforms infused with this energy...creating a reaction that granted an odd ability."

"What is that?"

"One of the volunteers...became pregnant." One of Javik's eyes blinked in disbelief, "We are still accessing data...but the child will apparently be a girl."

"I see..." Yes, these machines all needed to be thrown out the airlock, "Have you found a name for the child?"

"We are accessing data on organic naming rituals, as Geth have no need for names amongst our collective legion," The geth answered, "Recently, we have scanned a name from the main female character who follows a yellow brick road."

"What non-imaginative simpleton wrote such nonsense?"

"A human, Councilor."

"Of course it was..." Despite all that they've accomplished, there was much about this cycle that Javik would love to see fly out the airlock, "They'll believe anything..."

* * *

Was it all worth it?

Lying back on his bed, Commander Shepard thought over the many lives and sacrifices that he'd made to come to this point.

Ashley...he'd left her to die on Virmire even though...at the time...he had loved her spirit and hidden poetic affinity. Three years since her death, he still remembered how she had prompted him into thought about a higher power.

After everything that he'd seen, how could there not be one? At least that was how Shepard saw it.

Pressley...along with Shepard himself, died on the first Normandy when the Collectors destroyed it. Pressley's grave was his grave as well for a brief time, something he remembered well as he walked through the crash site of the Normandy.

Jack...Shepard never thought that she'd do what she did. But she actually shifted the barrier onto Shepard and his team...leaving herself to be taken by the Collector Swarm and denoted herself while giving a collector possessed by Harbinger the turkey.

Zaeed...He'd promised him that he would help the old mercenary get revenge on his partner. But thanks to his stupid mistakes, the old man died on the Collector Base...Shepard regretted never actually putting his name on the Memorial Wall.

Jacob...A rocket to the head can do terrible things and Shepard would be forever haunted by the image of Jacob's opened head spilling it's contents on the ground and Kasumi's frantic cries as she held the body of the second man that she had loved.

Kelly...he wasn't quick enough to save her...only quick enough to watch her break down into genetic paste to be pumped into the proto-reaper abomination...

Dr. Chakwas...He'd left her on the Citadel to protect her...when the reapers came, she stayed at her post tending the injured while the others fled...

Wreav...

Wait...why did he care about Wreav? He was a bloodthirsty pain in the ass...

It was because Wreav would have been the future of the Krogan if he hadn't worked things out with Wrex. Thankfully, Wrex had proven to be a powerful leader for the Krogan people and was also level headed enough to keep their "darker" instincts in check.

When Wrex wasn't enough, Bakara also helped as well.

Mordin...Shepard hated himself...he had almost allowed himself to shoot the scientist salarian in the back. But he couldn't do it and it was the right thing to do.

No, the right thing to do would have been to tell Wrex and Mordin about the Sabotage at the first chance and maybe Mordin would've lived...or maybe he wouldn't, but now Shepard was carrying a lie inside of him. A lie that only Mordin discovered...if Wrex or Grunt ever learned what he almost did...

Kirrahe...He held the line for Shepard, taking a blast meant for the salarian councilor while Shepard stood when he could have acted. But the Major never held anything against Shepard...that made it much worse...

Kaidan...With the salarian councilor saved, there shouldn't have been any reason for this to happen. But Kaiden was killed by Shepard's hand, saying that Udina couldn't defend himself.

As untrue as that was, it did show Kaidan's compassion for others. Even when they clearly didn't deserve it.

Legion...An the apex of discovering his own identity and achieving peace between his people and their creators, he disassembled his programing and died.

Yes died, Shepard knew without a doubt that Legion and all of the geth that he had ever killed were in fact alive...

To honor him, the geth now consider themselves as a collective legion...a fitting tribute...

Miranda...Even though Shepard made Kai Leng pay, it wouldn't change the fact that Miranda died because he didn't warn her. Worse, she died in the arms of her sister.

Even if he never got along with her, it was still hard.

Steve...Crashed during the battle for Earth and was ripped apart by husks...or maybe the crash killed him.

Shepard hated that he couldn't at least check and see if he could find a body...

Anderson...Died believing that he had ensured the victory of the Victory Fleet. In a sense, he had.

But if Shepard ever truly did have a father, he had died at the Controls of the Crucible arms.

Thane...Despite being in the fatal stages of his disease, he continued on until expiring after the final battle against Harbinger. It was a miracle that he had lasted that long, Kolyat said that it was Thane's loyalty to Shepard that kept him going.

That made him draw out his pain and suffering...

Hackett...The old man died as he lived...aboard his ship, calmly and proudly commanding his crew even as Harbinger ripped it in half. Survivors said that Hackett died without fear, maybe he knew that he would take Harbinger with him or that he died without regret...

EDI...Joker was still devastated by her loss. She died after ejecting him from the Normandy SR-2 and using it as a Mass-Relay propelled missile against an newly discovered Leviathan-class Reaper. A reaper that was at least ten times the size of a normal reaper, preventing it from being able to use relays due to it's size and also made it a target for light-speed propelled objects.

In Shepard's mind, it shouldn't have come to that.

"Damian?"

"Tali..." Shepard watched his wife sit next to him, intwining her hand with his, "Is William asleep?"

"Yes, he's a baby, that's what they usually do." Tali said as Shepard laughed for the first time in months, "What?"

"You don't know much about human infants, do you?"

"You're right, I don't." Tali admitted with a chuckle, "But our son isn't human...nor quarian..."

"He's got the best of both worlds." Shepard said as he smoothed his hand over the pale face of his wife, "As smart and beautiful as his mother..."

"And as strong and tough as his father." Tali finished when her smile waned, "Are you alright?"

"Just...thinking..." Shepard admitted as Tali hugged him from behind, "You know...you and William...you're the only things that I am certain about."

"Certain about?" Tali asked gently, "Damian..."

"Tali..." Shepard somehow knew that he'd hate himself for saying this, "Is this all really for the best? If it weren't for Revan and his Forge...I would've condemned us all to die."

"How is that different from before?" Tali asked, "You rejected Saren even as Sovereign was ripping apart the Citadel fleet and then found a way to stop Sovereign; You defeated the Collectors on your own terms even while working for Cerberus; and now, you found a way to stop the Reapers without playing into their hands."

"At what cost?" Shepard nearly yelled, "Earth is a wasteland...it'll be at least a dozen generations before anyone will be able to live there...Damian will never be able to see it...Thessia is just...gone...and...I can't go on...so many worlds destroyed...so many lives lost...and what do we have to show for it?"

"Remember what I said on Rannoch?" Tali whispered in Shepard's ear, "After you stopped the war between the Geth and the Quarians?"

"I do..." Just like all of his darkest hours, that moment was a shining beacon that kept him sane and whole.

"Maybe we'll never see Earth alive and beautiful in our lifetime..." Tali said as she kissed Shepard, "Most of us will never reap the benefits from our victory over the reapers...our descendents will...but we won't. That doesn't matter to me right now..."

"Right now...We have this."

* * *

******Author's Notes:**

**This is the follow-up for my one-shot, mainly so I could really tune this story as a "successful offshoot" of the Reject Ending that we got in the Extended Cut DLC.  
**

**It's a bit of a downer, but considering that they're up against the Reaper Armada...an entire force of starships that can individual mop up a fleet without a sweat...I think this would be reasonable outcome for a High EMS player. If you want, I can do one or two more chapters as an extended epilogue.  
**

**Speaking of the Extended Cut...I thought it was pretty good.  
**

**I was like a lot of fans when this was first announced. I didn't think that there was any way to polish something that was already fundamentally flawed. After all, Bioware themselves said that it would be DLC to clarify the endings and bring closure to Shepard's journey.  
**

**Which meant that the Star-Child would stay; Joker ditching you along with your crew would stay; Multi-colored explosions would stay; The Normandy crashing on a jungle world would stay; and the Mass Relay Network being destroyed would stay.  
**

**As I said before, my only real grip was with everything relating to the Star-Child and Joker apparently abandoning you to die. Everything else was okay...so I was afraid that the Extended Cut would make things worse.  
**

**But, the Extended Cut really did manage to make sense of these endings, explain them out to where each one was an actually viable solution, and to my surprise, added a new ending when they originally said that they weren't going to do that.  
**

**Said new ending is pretty much a downer, but that ending makes sense.  
**

**Personally, my first Shepard picked Destroy since he/I really didn't trust the Star-Child after explaining that he basically got sick of his creators and forced them to become the first reapers. This kid is insane in my opinion, not to mention that his logic still smells of bullshit even if the reasons behind that logic are plausible. **

**For my Shepard, controlling the Reapers or forcibly synthesizing every race in the galaxy against their will would have made him just as bad as the reapers/star-child.  
**

**I still would've liked to have seen more of an actual romance scene for Shepard/Tali instead of fading to black. I still didn't see much from the various war assets that I collected. I still feel like I did more work during Priority: Earth than I should have considering the multitude of races that I had gathered and they can't even put up a five minute fight with me having to hold their hand? What!  
**

**Everything else is great and explained to acceptable levels. I got to see what happened to the Krogan, quarians, EDI really did die in Destroy but we don't see any Geth die so maybe they survived and rebuilt...everyone thinks I'm dead, but there's still a bit of hope considering the "Breath scene".  
**

**All in all, I'll give Bioware credit for the Extended Cut DLC for at least redeeming the BS that was the original endings. Here, I don't see Blue, Red or Green; now I see Control, Destroy, Sythesis, or Reject.**

**Control: Shepard becomes the central intelligence of the Reapers and controls them as an all-powerful patrol fleet that protects and lives in peace with the galaxy.  
**

**Synthesis: Shepard is disassembled, synthetics and organics are merged, the Reapers share their billions of years of knowledge and wisdom with the new synthesized races.  
**

**Destroy: Shepard lives, Reapers are destroyed and EDI dies with them along with the geth, but since we don't see any geth die...open to interpretation.  
**

**Reject: Shepard tells the Star-Child to f$%# off or puts a bullet in his skull, the kid shows his true colors, Reapers win in this cycle, but the next one uses our knowledge to skull bash them to the curb.  
**

** It's obviously not going to please everyone, but it's at least much better than I expected it to be.  
**

**Just one question: Why did the kid's voice change when you went with the Reject Ending?  
**


End file.
